I’m rewatching Babylon 5 and it’s putting me in the mood for an immersive game where I get to command a spaceship and blast stuff with lasers or plasma cannons or whatever.
I fondly remember playing Tie Fighter, Elite 2 and Privateer, and I was wondering if there were good games from this side of the millennium? I’ve tried playing Tie Fighter Total Conversion, but without a joystick I found it very hard to control. I’ve played some Elite Dangerous, and enjoy a bit of trading, but the combat is a bit too hard for me.
I’m a very casual gamer, and not looking for an mmo, or anything particularly challenging. I just want to zoom around in a spaceship as epic battles rage around me, and have a bit of a power fantasy.
Any suggestions?
X4 foundations is a space shooter sandbox, with empire building, diplomacy and all what you can expect from a space game.
A lot of different ships and loadouts.
If you’re into Babylon 5, there’s actually a game called Babylon 5: I’ve Found Her that captures the spirit of the fighter combat pretty well IMO. Might be worth checking out!
Wow! Didn’t know about that, thanks!!
everspace 2 should scratch that itch
No mention of Starlancer? It kinda flew under the radar but had a nice setting and good controls.
If you want something a bit closer to Starfox, rather than an all-range flight arena, try Rogue Flight. It definitely evokes the power fantasy feeling, living up the classic arcade trope of “one ship being readied on a mission to save humanity”. There’s some very big-name voice actor work in it, as well.
Another good game for the “power fantasy” trope, though it’s a bit more outside the target, is Ace Combat 7. Or, perhaps any games in the series, but this one is pretty accessible. The combat is close to what you’d get in X-Wing/Tie-Fighter, but with fighter planes. It breaks from realism a little bit where needed to make the stunts fun. And, the story very much orients around the silent player character being “scary tough” in a fight, to the point enemy fighters are retreating just from seeing your wing markings.
+1 for Rebal Galaxy
I haven’t played it in years, but I have fond memories of FreeSpace 2 and it’s open source community version. A quick search turned this up.
Freelancer is still the best of its genre, IMO.
It’s abandonware, so you can download it for free, and the community has released a ton of mods over the years.
Oh no, mods… If it’s anything like skyrim I’ll spend more time messing around with mods than playing the game… But a bit of reading suggests that just the HD mod is a good choice for a 1st time playthru?
I’ve never played them myself, but I’ve seen some mods that completely overhaul the game.
That being said, I would recommend playing the vanilla experience first, with an HD mod if you’d like.
If you want bigger ships than fighters:
Rebel Galaxy(its completely different compared to RG Outlaw) - big ships, can hire a single mercenary, combat for you happens in 2D and its more of naval style with broadsides and automated turrets.
Between the Stars - you have a spaceship with a crew and can also hire 2 more ships to help you out(once you gear them), game got plenty of quests with some puzzles to boat, “ground combat” which is using dice(or can be disabled completely) and space combat takes a bit to get used to.
NO Mans Sky. You can dogfight space pirates. I need to spin the game up again now that custom ships are a thing.
The custom interiors and crew based stuff is really interesting and I want to see it as a light no fire testbed if nothing else after they said it was the same core tech as their ocean faring ships.
Everspace 2 is a blast(er). The combat is pretty arcadey but has some decent crafting and upgrading mechanics to it
Came here to say this!
I am not into crafting or upgrading at all, but the story, quests and simple but cool-looking combat kept me on it more than I am willing to admit.
Just be sure to take the second one, as the first one is a completely different type of game.
Star Wars Squadrons is pretty good fun.
This was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the Tie Fighter mention. Though OP mentioned not having a joystick and I don’t have direct experience playing on controller so YYMV.
The single player campaign is short but fun and very nostalgic for enjoyers of the X-Wing/Tie Fighter era of games!
The online (if anyone even still plays) is anything but casual so I don’t necessarily recommend that unless you are super invested in it.
That looks fun! I am a sucker for games set in classic SW.
FTL and star command come to mind.
Isn’t FTL more of a base (ship) builder than a space dogfight type game?
In increasing order of casualness I recommend: Elite Dangerous->X3/X4->Everspace/Everspace 2-> No Man’s Sky.
Everspace 2 is a spiritual successor to Freelancer, so probably your best bet ( Everspace 1 is more roguelike, but holds up nicely ). Speaking of Freelancer, I hear the game is still alive and has a vibrant community around it.
If you ever want to revisit Elite shoot me a message, I may help you with starting up. They say Elite doesn’t have a learning curve but a cliff, so help is usually needed. Luckily the game has the most welcoming and helpful community I’ve seen in/around a video game.
Other than these, there’s Chorus, but I haven’t played that one and it seems more story driven than open-ended.
There’s a new game in early access called “Jump Space” that has been pretty fun so far. You can play it solo but is more fun with others, as you work as a crew with roles such as pilot, gunner, engineering etc.
It’s published in EA, that is Early Access. Not by EA, the company.
Thanks for the correction
Random question about Jump Space. Is it like Sea of Thieves or Void Crew where it’s kind of only fun if you’re playing with actual friends and everyone is on mic and isn’t very functional if you’re matching up with randoms?
Been keeping an eye on this game, but have also come to realize that while I like the idea of games like SoT or Void Crew I don’t actually like playing them cuz I don’t like games that require that level of coordination with randoms who don’t know exactly what to do.
To be clear, I’m obsessed with coop games like Deep Rock Galactic and the new Mycopunk. And I’ve spent decades waiting for that perfect space shooter that transitions from ship combat to ground combat. But the bottom line is I’ll always be matching up with randoms and if this isn’t that kind of game then I’m gonna sit this one out.
Yes I think it would be frustrating if you are playing with random people. Learning is part of the gameplay so experienced players will have to teach / direct new players. For example, my group died multiple times when we had to deal with radiation just because we didn’t know what to do with irradiated material.
On mic is absolutely a requirement as coordination is a major emphasis. Granted the game is still in active development. But from what I’ve heard, the new features will require even more teamwork and coordination.
I.e. you can have fire on one side of the ship and radiation on the other, whilst in the middle of a dogfight. These elements are scaled to the size of your party and difficulty level though. If you play solo, you have an onboard bot that helps and you don’t have to juggle as much.
Thanks for the info. Exactly what I needed.
